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Chase Elliott scores season high second place in Monster Energy Cup race at Michigan

Second year driver recovers from terrible May with third straight top-10 finish

June 18, 2017

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Chase Elliott recorded a season-high second place finish at Michigan Sunday. The finish marks the 21-year-old Georgia native’s third straight finish in the top 10.

“I didn’t think we had a very good car coming into the day and guys made a lot of gains and was able to run just outside the top 5 -- the end of the top 5 towards the end,” Elliott said after Sunday’s race. “Had unbelievable pit stops on pit road today, which is great, and hopefully we can carry some of that forward.”

Over the last three races, Elliot has finished fifth (Dover), eighth (Pocono) and then notched a runner-up finish Sunday.

Those recent results are a marked change from the adversity he struggled through in May, when Elliott had two DNFs and was unable to finish higher than 29th.

“I look back to the month of May and it’s not like we ran really, really bad,” he said. “We had a lot of things that didn’t go our way. We had some fast cars through that month. Didn’t have very good results to show for it, so I don’t necessarily think our performance has changed in the past three weeks. I think we had those kind of opportunities in the three or four races prior to that. They just never really showed.”

Following Sunday’s race, the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sits fifth in the Cup standings with 478 points.

Although Elliott is in the top five in the points, he still feels a win might be the only chance to earn a second-straight playoff berth.

“With the way the (playoff) situation is, you’re almost going to have to win with all the different guys that have already won and the guys that have had opportunities to win,” he said. “So it’s important to run well and put yourself in those kinds of positions, which I was proud of (Sunday).”